What is you best/rarest catch you got while railfanning?

[CatFoodFlambe]

Probably on a trip in southern Ohio in the mid-1970's - a young couple in what the late Herb Sullivan once gleefully described as "complete and total embrace" on a creek bank a few yards downstream  from a trestle on the DT&I.   

No, I didn't take the picture.   

[CAZEPHYR]

 

  

IanMP

As of now, i aleardy saw plenty of things on the railroads, i saw cabooses, work trains, and even a transCAER training tanker, but i think my best catch was CN's inspection RDC, since they are quitte rare on my line, my second best catch would probably be a long Herzog ballast train with 2 engines on the lead and 2 engines helping on the rear (DPUs are a very rare thing where i live) and my third best catch is probably that training tank car.  What about you?

 

This has to be rare to see two 4-8-4's working over Cajon.

RR

[chatanuga]

Last year on the evening of the Fostoria (Ohio) Rail Festival, a couple rail grinders pulled in at the park and stopped for a while before heading east.  Having never seen one in real life, it was a treat to see them.  Granted, had they been grinding, I wouldn't have been that close.

watch?v=kc0nH wfujw

Kevin

[MP173]

Two years ago we were in Rockland Maine to go on a 4 day Schooner trip (J&J Riggins) which in itself was pretty amazing...a 100 year old tall ship.

We were staying at my wife's brother (who owns and operates the ship with his captain/wife) and would leave the next morning.  I had to take care of some work related business...a customer was going to call at 2pm, so I left their house and drove to a spot where I wouldnt disturb folks with boring business chatter.

I parked next to the tracks and soon I heard a horn which I deemed unusual for a Sunday afternoon on a branchline in Maine.  I jumped out of hte car with camera and around the curve came an F unit and a passenger train.  Totally unexpected in 2014.  The train runs on weekends to Rockland and returns.  

I also found out the railroad runs a short (5 mile) freight movement from a quarry south of Rockland to a transload facility for a barge which moves the rock to NY/NJ area.  I didnt see that train, but the F units was enough.  

The next day we set sail on an incredible voyage off the Maine coast which featured not only great scenery but great meals.

Ed

[kenotrainnut]

As I mulled this over, several surprises came to mind:

• Growing up in Muskegon, MI, in the 80s and early 90s on a CSX branch that ran north from Holland, standard power for the daily run to Grand Rapids was EMD 4-axle power, typically a pair of GP40s or 38s (or mixture of the two). Very rarely, a 4-axle GE might show up. 6-axle power was non-existant, until within the span of a few months in the mid-90s, I witnessed a single SD50 pulling into town pulling some sort of extra; on another occasion, I drove down to the yard and found a pair of very new wide-cab GEs parked in the yard near the more mundane standard EMDs. Word was these locomotives were the power off a coal delivery to the large power plant just off the line to Muskegon, between Grand Haven and Holland, that had been sent with extra cars to be delivered to Muskegon after the coal delivery was complete. I later found out from the crew that ran the train to Grand Rapids that night that they were under orders to take the GEs dead in the train and weren't allowed to take advantage of their horsepower.
• While railfanning with my dad at the Grand Island, NE, diamond (now replaced by an overpass) crossing of the UP and BN in the early 90s, we caught the SD60M that BN had painted in tribute to their employees serving in the Gulf War. We had no clue it was coming and the picture my dad got wasn't great, but we still had the proof!
• In Denver, we happened to encounter BN's set of experimental SD60MACs, the prototypes for the SD70MAC, which were testing on the Joint Line at that time. We were fortunate to come up on them just as the crew was climbing down and the engineer filled us in on what we were looking at.
• Also in Denver, what appeared at first glance to be just another ubiquitous Cascade Green SD40, we realized was, in fact, an original Great Northern SDP40, the body extension for the steam generator still very present (the steam generator, of course, was long gone). 
• While visiting friends in Laramie, WY, in the late 90s, I went down to the pedestrian overpass over the UP yard; as I watched an approaching eastbound, I knew something was different about the lead unit. Sure enough, on the point was one of UPs two SD40-2s that they had applied a special scheme for 1996 Olympic torch train. I raced that train to the east end of town for better shots.
• In the "surprise that got away" category, in the mid 80s we were again in Laramie, WY, and I went fishing (my first time ever) with our friends' son while my dad went down to the rail yard to watch trains. He witnessed what was likely one of the final revenue runs of the 6900 Centennials in a classic 6900-8000 series Fast 40 (SD40-2 regeared for higher speeds to match the 6900s)-6900 lashup. Although I saw many in the deadlines in North Platte, I never actually saw any 6900s in revenue service. Fishing still ranks as one of the least interesting activities on earth for me.

[MARTY CALON]

Outside Livingstone, Zambia in 1994, approaching an old rail crossing in the car, when a long, steam-drawn passenger train pulled up and stopped, not sure why.  I was astonished, as if I'd gone back in time.

It turned out to be one of Rohan Vos's early Rovos excursion trains.  We got out of the car to take some pictures of the train, and my brother talked to Mr Vos.  Years later I took three very enjoyable trips on his trains.

[RAY HEROLD]

The rarest and best catch while railfanning was pulling into Whitehall, N.Y. on a Monday morning and finding the Delaware and Hudson's 2 RF-16 Sharknoses and all 4 Alco PA's there at the same time. As a matter of fact I was allowed into one of the Sharks and took some pictures out the front window. Definitely a bonus. To end the day, I chased a freight with 3 Alco C-628's s/b out of Whitehall toward Colony. N.Y.

[FREDERICK FINE]

I can think of a number of rare catches while railfanning, but one in particular sticks out. I live in Ohio and on one trip Union City, OH/IN, I had the good fortune to catch a westbound on CSX (former NYC) a BNSF GP60B #346 as the 2nd unit in the consist. A BQ23-7 #3003B, still in the Family Lines paint, going through Troy, OH, was another great. Both were around 2002-2006 when photographed.

[sigengr]

The first thing to come to mind was a South Shore Little Joe doing a dutch drop.

[JoeKoh]

Maybe I should add another one.Cp 2816 rolled into Defiance.It was Matt's birthday.Don't know when that engine will come back through.

stay safe

Joe

[tree68]

sigengr

The first thing to come to mind was a South Shore Little Joe doing a dutch drop.

Now that you mention it, I remember seeing the C&O doing one in Milford in the early 1960's.  I'm pretty sure it one of the "flatland" GP7's or GP9's, but at that point in my life, such distinctions were of no import.

In fact, one day the local was in the selfsame siding.  Looking back, they were in the hole, waiting for a through freight headed north on what is now the CSX Saginaw Sub.  One of the crew members invited me on the locomotive and opened a few doors for me, so I could marvel at the prime mover.  

When the northbound came through, I asked if the locomotives were the same - the answer was that they were bigger.  SD's maybe?  

[caldreamer]

Tow of my other great catches was seeing the SP U25B painted in bicentennial colors in 1976 on the fueling tracks at the Santa Clara yard and for years starting early 1972 seeing the wood outside braced WP caboose down at the small WP yard at the south end of San Jose.  It was used for the WP local that served the local industries.  You did not see many wood caboosed in revenue service at that late date.

[ws Corwinda]

Back in the mid 1990s I was watching trains at Palisade, NV and saw a series of flatcars on a westbound SP freight - carrying what I'm pretty sure was an oil well drill rig and its associated service trucks and other hardware.

[Masked Marvel]

My rarest catch was probably last summer on a Sunday afternoon.  I saw a BNSF train go by and it had EIGHT engines leading the way.  A lot of the cars following the engines looked like they had seen better days so I'm assuming it was put together load just to get cars from point A to point B.     

[oltmannd]

RAY HEROLD

The rarest and best catch while railfanning was pulling into Whitehall, N.Y. on a Monday morning and finding the Delaware and Hudson's 2 RF-16 Sharknoses and all 4 Alco PA's there at the same time. As a matter of fact I was allowed into one of the Sharks and took some pictures out the front window. Definitely a bonus. To end the day, I chased a freight with 3 Alco C-628's s/b out of Whitehall toward Colony. N.Y.

 

Yow!  D&H in the 70s?  Check!  Nothing more to see....

[selector]

Saw this CPR Heritage Business Train going south through the Fraser Canyon last October.

[SALfan]

Wasn't railfanning, just driving on U.S. 84 next to CSX's "Bow Line" between Waycross and Thomasville, GA.  Must have been 30 years ago or more, but it was a rare sighting even then.  Saw a boxcar in New York Central jade green that still had the Central's logo on the side.  That was my only sighting of a car in Central paint and logo.

[Dasco]

Back in about 1990 in DeKalb, IL a CNW manifest train went by with a flat loaded up with fishing boats.  

 

[matthewsaggie]

Clinchfield #1 on what was then the SCL in Henderson NC. Was sitting in my office about 2 blocks from the track when I heard a steam whistle. Someone asked what the heck was that, but I know though at that point had no idea what was making it. I tore out of the office, jumped into the car and headed north where I knew the road and track Came together and got there just ahead of #1 and the B unit that used to accompany it. It was sure a surprise and a highlight. This was in 1975. Wow has it really been that long ago!

[groundeffects]

Some of my best/rarest catches have been railfanning the Amtrak's eastbound California Zephyr (#6) between Roseville, CA and Reno, NV on the Donner Pass route.

During June 2015, I got some excellent shots of the California Zephyr Silver Solarium dome observation car tacked onto the end of the eastbound number 6 train.  Starting at Colfax, I headed east and followed the train.  I stopped for photos at Casa Loma, Yuba Gap, Soda Springs and Truckee.  One of the photos I took that day was recently used for Trains Magazine September 2016 issue.

A few weeks ago while up at Yuba Gap (again, just waiting for the eastbound train number 6) I had another rare sight, which was three observation passenger cars tacked together on to the end of the train!  One of them was a heavyweight Santa Fe observation car-really cool.  Needless to say, after Yuba Gap I followed that train east, again taking photos at Soda Springs and again at Truckee.

Regards,

Jeff B

[STEVE HINCH]

Well I suppose I am showing my age, but my rarest catch was a UP Aerotrain going from Las Vegas to Los Angeles back in about 1957.  I was 6 years old and we were camping at Afton Canyon.  I remember thinking it looked just like the locomotive on the train ride at Disneyland, which I later learned was modeled after it.  Both are long since gone.